Trip to Iran

Followup on yesterday's post.  I called the AIA today to see if I could take the extension part of the trip without doing the 17 day trip through the Silk Road. It turns out that it is possible but I will have to wait to see if any who take the Silk Road tour will want to take the extension. Apparently some others have asked about this possibility also so I am not alone in the request.  She took my name and will let me know. She also told me that there is a tour planned for April 2014 but it is not finalized.  At this point, I am planning on taking the September tour since it is feasible that I can do it. Now to win all those necessary races this spring to enable me to do this without any question.  (Jenny from Louisville helped me to figure a way to win the necessary funds with an interesting story about a man who won over a million dollars from a thousand dollar exacta bet on long shot Mine That Bird.)  Gad!  Blew me away to realize that.

However, I am determined to go. I did check out other sources of tours to Iran that cover the same ground and the prices are similar so it will be one or the other.  There is a trip this April but that is a little too close for me at this point in time.  April 2014 is the one that the AIA is planning so she said.

I read an interesting story tonight on Facebook about Called to Serve which is being trained by Nick Canani, son of Julio Canani.  Gary Stevens will be riding him in the Big Cap this Saturday against both Game On Dude and Ron The Greek. For sure this Saturday will be chalk in that race but what an exciting trifecta or superfecta possibility.

News from AIA

Oh my golly gee whiz! My fondest dream may come true. I just received a tour program for the Silk Road which will be in September. As an extension is a trip to Iran to visit Persepolis and Tehran.  I want to go in the very worst way so I am planning already to see if I can at least go to Iran if not to the Silk Road. I have to call the group tomorrow to learn if I can do it that way.

My one dream has always been to get to Persepolis somehow. I am so excited about the prospect of it that I will soon check out all tours possible besides this one.  But this would be great if I can do it.

I have been there when it was intact as it had been in 4BC because I visited it spiritually before ever knowing what it was.  I was so impressed with it that I have always wanted to see it, as much as I had wanted to see the Chateau de Versailles after seeing it as it had been when under construction and built during the reign of Louis XIV.  Believe it or not, the greatest treasure in life was learning of all this Heavenly material that is within when I searched for it.  Making one more of Jesus's promises valid in my opinion.

But hallelujah!  I have an opportunity to go to the Silk Road and Iran, and maybe if possible, just Iran.  I do not know if one has to take the Silk Road trip or not since the Iran trip is an extension from that excursion. It is wonderful too but is warning me that I must be physically able to climb stairs, walk a mile, etc. so I cannot do anything but prepare for it.

Greatest news of the day for me.  I can hardly wait.

MacBook Air and Apple Store

I bought my MacBook Air at the Scottsdale Quarter in Kierland Commons Mall.  The employees are very nice and helpful in trying to demonstrate to those of us who participate in workshops or one to one  training how to operate and use the computer.  I am sometimes quick to learn and sometimes very slow to learn.  I have to use the concepts several times so that they become habit with me.

I admit that I really love this computer already. It is a fantastic instrument. It is extremely thin, very light to carry, and the keyboard is compatible with my speed in typing.  Because it is too early for me to know everything that there is to know on this computer, I am going slowly so that I do it right.  I have had two sessions already  to learn more about it. One was a workshop and the other was a one on one. I do not mind being an ignoramus because I learned from the cpt group where I took a word processing course years ago that one learns better from mistakes often than from getting it correct all the time.

I sent my friends Joan and Patty a video from youtube which describes it in a review, and it reminded me again about the program with fingers in moving things around. I will have to refresh my memory on that several times to get it right.  I have to remember to ask where all my transferred photos and documents are to be found on this machine. I did call and received help online but I will have to ask a rep to help me next time as well.

I have received help over the phone twice and both times I had no problem at all in solving the problem.
I also bought a mouse scanner which the Brookstone manager helped to put on for me, and it does work just fine.  I also had verizon put my vzmanager on so that I can use the machine in my apartment. That is all for now.

Computer Update

It has been quite some time since i have posted anything at this blog. I have been exceedingly busy.  I am trying to do a lot all at once.  But I did finally do myself a favor and bought myself a MacBook Air computer which I am in the process of learning.  I am a bit of a slowpoke at this since I spend only a few hours on it during the evening.  But to bring it all up to date I am trying to condense what has happened in the past week into a few paragraphs.   I had to go to Microsoft to have my old computer checked for a virus.  Fortunately, I learned that there is no virus on my computer.  But I am having trouble with my touchpad on both my old laptop and my netbook.  But the technician came to check it out and I learned quite a bit from him.  In addition to that, I am going to apple store to learn all I can about this new computer which I admit I like so very much.  I would easily recommend Apple to anyone who asks me.  It is definitely a computer that I am going to like after I learn all that I need to know to operate it efficiently.

I bought it to finish my novel on Alexander of Macedon as well as any other novels I might decide to write.  But I am only in the first days of learning this so it will take me a few more sessions before I begin to revise my first draft into a potentially publishable version. I think about it all the time though.

Despite the fact that I am virus free I do not trust the old Gateway computer now to write a novel upon. I did not use word on it anyway so that I can start completely fresh and new on this computer.  I just have to learn where and how.

I have been reading other author's novels in the meantime which always helps me to think about how to  make my own book interesting and salable.  I just finished reading Jenny Milchman's Cover of Snow which is about a small town's problem with police corruption.  Her story makes me think of the problem of pedophilia amongst not only religious bodies but also involving government officials and children's homes.  I read something about a scandal in the UK that involved government officials who used and abused children who resided in orphanages.  It was very sad to read that people's lives were threatened even in trying to expose that heinous crime.  Jenny's book begins with a suicide and the widow is the person through whom we hear the tale of the corrupt police force in this small town in New England.  Then I am reading Kinsey and Me by Sue Grafton whose explains early in her book the difference between detective stories, mystery stories, and crime stories.  What a fascinating distinction.  Her short stories are at least solved within twenty pages, and it is fun to read how she is able to detect and solve cases brought into her office.

Closing this...just an update on where I am on both computers and the novel...

Galápagos Giant Tortoises

Apple versus Microsoft

I never thought that I would ever get this involved in computers.  It started years ago when I took a word processing course in Flint, Michigan and learned all the codes on a cpt program. I think it is intended to be used for Blue Cross and other businesses, but it was my first introduction to computers. I ended up writing a book about a world security program using computers which is still a fantastic concept I will admit...My idea in the book I mean...It is all a mental telepathy type program which believe it or not started as pure fiction but ended up as reality...I could go on about that but it would probably scare the shit out of too many people to be blunt...it does all mean that my ideas are not fantasy but very much reality.

Anyway, I have been using windows since I bought a Gateway from HSN some years ago...That was the beginning of a long nightmare which I will avoid discussing right now.  But anyway, last week I bought a MacAirNotebook laptop and am now learning how to use it.  So today I had an appointment at Apple to learn something about Mac and my tutor was very nice and helpful to me.  I won't go into details. 

So then I went to Brookstone to purchase a mouse scanner that was on sale. I have wanted a scanner for a long time, and this mouse method is very interesting.  The manager helped me to put it on my computer so now the next step will be for me to try to use it. I will try that tomorrow in the clubhouse where I can use the wifi.

I am on an allowance with my broadband so I will close this down now to leave room to use it tomorrow...That is all for now...I am weary from a long day, and my nerves can only stand so much of this learning a new computer and hi tech.

Sgt Reckless - Korean War Horse Hero

Sgt Reckless - Korean War Horse Hero

New computer and new mattress and frame

I always promised myself that when I finally got any money that I would buy me a tempur-pedic mattress. I had tried one at the Promenade Mall years ago in Sleep America.  By chance, there is a Sleep America store in Tempe Marketplace so I just decided to go try one again, and the salesman was so sharp and savvy that I bought it. It was delivered yesterday so last night I got my first full night's sleep on it to wake up at six o'clock this morning...unheard of for me...So when I got home this evening from a day at the races, I had to go to sleep right now. I just woke up a few hours ago and decided that I should write something on my computer since  I have not been bothering much with it in the past two days...busy with setting up bed, and also with another new purchase, a laptop computer that I hope will give me years of happiness and joy instead of the amount of annoyance and irritation that Gateway gave me.  I went to the local Apple store and immediately purchased a MacAir Laptop which I will learn through their one on one group program.  I bought it to finish the novel that I had begun and which needs some help now. 

I have never been happy with either one of my computers that are microsoft.  Just now, something again interfered and erased sentences which frankly always annoys me. I prefer to do my own editing and do not like the idea that an entire paragraph or sentence or even page can suddenly disappear on you.  It may be a result of a virus but I do not like it.  The problem of viruses turned me against microsoft and its programming techniques.

The only repairs that I want to pay for are continued maintenace, tuneups, and general age related problems, but not viruses...that frankly ticks me off and it happens even with security and firewalls attached.

So I am hoping for a change in my life for the positive.  Nothing could be worse than the past few years with a bad computer experience.

Shergar wins the 1981 Derby - rare commentary by Peter Bromley for BBC R...

Religion

I do not care to discuss, debate, or argue Religious Faiths any longer.  There was a time when I would engage in such trifles as that. For now, my solution to mankind's behaviour is this.  At the end of life, each soul must review his or her life.  He must relive everything that he did to other people either good or bad so that he learns how that person who was on the receiving end of his behaviour felt about it, good or bad.  He will therefore be rewarded or punished according to his own outpouring of his own deeds, words, and thoughts.  It does not matter which religious faith one adheres to but rather to how one has acted, thought, and behaved during the course of the duration of his life on the earth.    Therefore, do good to one another for it shall surely come back to you.  Likewise, any harm or injury that one has done to another whether just of thought, word, or deed will also come back to you.  You get what you deserve. That is justice.

My new bed

I recently ordered a tempur-pedic bed, Cloud design.  It will be delivered this Friday. I have been sleeping on a Coleman air mattress for the past nearly five years and it is time for me to have what I have always wanted.  A good mattress.  I  have only a rocking chair (swivel style) and a table in my apartment plus three shelves (from my neighbor Richard) so that I need more than anything else a good bed in which to sleep.  I have wanted a tempur-pedic ever since I tried one at Sleep America many years ago.  They are expensive but I have decided that my declining years need to be the best years sleepwise, and so I went right out and bought it.

While at Tempe Marketplace, I made three stops of importance: Target, Sprint, and Sleep America.  I asked the lonely salesman about it and he pointed me towards it.  He offered me a great deal (?) and so I listened and before you know it, I went home with a new bed, protective cover, and pillow to be delivered this Friday.  Hallelujah!

After I get my first nights sleep on it, I will discuss it further. For now, I am so happy with myself I cannot contain myself...Yeah, Janet!  For once, being really good to yourself.

Tempurpedic Cloud Reviews and Ratings : Complaints, Advantages and Owner...

BREAKING !Federal Court Indicts President Obama Will not see end of his ...

The Hunger Games Official Trailer [1080p HD] - All Hunger Games Trailers...

Hunger Games movie (spoiler)

Hunger Games is based upon author Suzanne Collins books which have been written in recent years.  The Games are a tradition in a future society which is called the Capitol in which there are 12 districts.  Each district each year must produce two adolescent aged children to participate in death games to find a final survivor.  A male and female are chosen by lot to participate in the games.  They are escorted to the seat of power where they are trained and schooled in survival tactics so that one of them can emerge the victor. Theoretically, this punishment is enacted to perpetuate the reminder of the past and to offer hope for the future. 

I have not read any of the books but each one of the actors and actresses who are in this film have read the books so that they understand the nature of the story and the characters themselves.  It is now in the hands of the director to bring the books to life in a film study.  Since all I know is the director's version, I am happy to say that the film is good enough for me. I don't intend to read any of the books. I have not read any of the Harry Potter books either.  I have seen only one of the Harry Potter films which was again good enough for me.

I liked the Hunger Games as depicted in the film.  It is an excellent two hour and twenty minute film...In this case, for once, filmgoers probably got their money's worth of entertainment.  The pacing is excellent.  The characters are well portrayed, and the drama, tension, suspense, and even human sympathy element keep the movie intact and cohesive.

Basically, the plot is simple.  24 children are chosen to represent their individual districts and are pitted against one another so that one of them will survive this battle.  Our story begins with a young 16 year old girl whose younger sister is selected by lot to sacrifice her life in this battle of the fittest.  District 12 is known as the coal district, a district which suffers extreme poverty so that our heroine has seen fit to try to hunt in the forest for supplies to sell so that she can help support her widowed mother and younger sister. When her sister is chosen as the next victim, she offers herself as a substitute for her sister by volunteering to do battle with the others.  Luckily for her, she meets a trainer who is a survivor of previous games who has been selected to give her and her male competitor advice on how to win at these games.  I will call our heroine Kat although her name is Katniss.  Early in the story, we learn that she does have a love interest who intercepts her when she is trying to shoot a deer to sell.  But she is coupled with a young man to perform in the games who has been a friend to her in the past. As a baker, he is at the store when he sees her lurking about seeking food so he throws her a piece of bread which she takes as a sign that he likes her.  Together, the two embark on their journey to survive this battle to the death, knowing that one of them might not return.

The remainder of the movie depicts the struggles that the children have when fighting to the death. On the first day, half the children are killed in the first battle to select weapons while Kat has avoided the early clashes by running into the forest to survive there.  Her encounters with a few who also flee that way prove to be uneventful until she unfortunately wanders too close to the edge of the contained boundaries...the onlookers and control group find a way to frighten her to get nearer the center of the action so that she is eventually found by a group of children who have joined forces together. She must somehow find a way to escape them and one of her allies helps her through pointing out a natural weapon, a hive of deadly bees, so that she has to hack her way out of the tree where she is hiding by cutting the limb holding the bees to fall upon the sleeping children who are lying below waiting for her to come down.  She is successful, has regrouped, found her ally, and then while destroying a mine field, she returns to find that her ally has been trapped under a fallen net.  She tries to set her free but unfortunately, one of the hunters finds them both and attempts to kill them, succeessfully when the young Rue is shot with an arrow in the chest.  Kat fights back and kills the attacker, then buries her young friend.  At that point her mentor finds a way to save both Kat and her partner from district 12 by creating a way that two from the same distriict can win and be set free. It is a love story..Kat then finds her male partner, feigns love for him, and together they return to the center of action to do battle with one of the few remaining members in the game.  In the meantime the control group again has found a means to chase them out of the forest into the center of action known as the cornucopia.  They succeed in evading the killer dogs who come after them by crawling atop a hovercraft where they meet with Cato who is in a death battle with Kat's partner...Kat puts Cato out of his misery and only the two from district 12 remain. But the control decides to revoke the earlier order that they can go home together by saying that only one of them can survive.  Kat takes over and asks her partner to trust her as she produces wild berries that would instantly kill them...About to commit suicide together, the control group orders them to stop, that none is not hope ever, and agrees that both are the winners so that both can go home together.  They then get their crowns of victory, meet with the President of the Capitol, and proceed to go home...There Kat's mother, real boyfriend, and sister await her return.

The movie is very well paced. There is never a time when one is bored, tired of it,or wishing it would hurry up and end. It is an excellent film.  However, my one quibble is the fact that it is about children who are set up to kill one another.  I do not like that as a plot of a movie which reminded me of Blue Lagoon with Brook Shields whose unhappy ending was about red berries instead of blue and which did end with their death, or The Lottery, a short story by Shirley Jackson, about a woman chosen to diie in the same kind of sacrifical lamb tradition.  No matter how well made the movie, the story line is dreadful.  Especially in a time when we are dealing with children who are killing each other in schools across America and around the world.  To make a movie that does not really glorify killing but does not condemn it has not really made me like or recommend the movie.  It is an excellent movie with a good cast of characters.  You meet them on the second dvd which does describe how the movie was made.

It is nice for girls to have a heroine but frankly, she is removed from any of the real action so that the film is about a loner who avoids death by staying out of the battles.  Once she is able to get a bow and arrow, she shows some ability as a survivor but she is seldom ever aggressively seeking an enemy to kill.  She and her first encounter both decide to let each other go.  She runs from everyone and without her young friend Rue she would never have found the beehive...without her partner from her district she would have been killed by Cato and his gang...her partner talked them into letting her stay up in the tree while they caught some sleep.  Not a very heroic heroine after all.

In the end, she is saved by those who liked her, and only one of them survived.  It is a strange movie showing that her gutsy entry into the battle did not really ever follow through until the last scene where she clearly challenges the authorities by nearly committing suicide.  She was banking on the fact that they would not let them die and she won that time round.

I liked the film because it showed great pieces of forest land in North Carolina.  Since my book is about Alexander's learning how to survive in forests, it appealed to me and helped me to think through some of my scenes.  Oddly enough, in this movie, Alexander Ludwig plays Cato...I am sure that is his stage name...I saw a lot of potential ripping off my book on Alexander but in the end, it probably helped me rather than hurt me.

My first draft was written as a piece of entrapment also...I am always aware that I can be ripped off and I always try to find a way to know if I have been or not.  The dvd did come through for me in a way that surprised me.  Gary Ross is a great director and writer. I respect him.  That is all I can say for now.

My dad has gone to be with my Mom

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from my brother telling me that my dad has passed away. We have been waiting for this to happen for a very long time. Back in 1970, I flew from California to Michigan when he came down with cancer and we had thought that it was the end for him then...As it turned out, he was one of the last to go in our family since both my mother and her brothers and their wives have all preceded my dad.  But finally, he has gone to join them in the world of spirit somehow.  He has not always believed that at all. In fact, he believes that death ends everything, and there is nothing more after that.  I suspect that he may have half wished that the rest of us are right that there is life after death but he never fully accepted it.

I guess the only way for sure is that we die to learn the truth of it.  In my case, I know that his mother who was a religious fanatic did survive as she made her appearance in our backyard in Michigan where she proved to me that she had powers even in spirit by unleashing my pet yorkshire terrier Clancey.  He stayed in that position until I opened the doors to let him in the house, and he was ever after affected by it, even to the point whereby he did the same as she and made his appearance to me in the bathroom in Colorado.

Yes, dogs have spiritual energy to reappear to reassure their master or mistress that they live after death also.  I looked down while sitting at the toilet and could see his energy vibrating ghostlike in front of me just as my grandmother had waved at me in the backyard patio that June in Davison, Michigan.

So for me there is no doubt about Heaven, Perfect Love, and God's promise to be fulfilled. I cannot say exactly the way that each one of us should practice our faith. I am the type who does not like attendance at church as the way of stating my faith. I rather like practicing it through goodness, kindness, generosity when able, and other means of showing that one has a God centered life.

I will admit that the numbness of constant ongoing routine no matter whether reciting the pledge of Allegiance, the playing of the national anthem at every sporting event, or the regularity of saying the same prayers at Church each and every Sunday becomes very tedious, boring, routine, and finally nonsensical.  It loses meaning after too many performances that become mere motions  instead of sincere prayers or sincere oaths of allegiance.

A book I loved is called Keys of the Kingdom where a priest recognized that a protester against religion was more religious, devout, and faithful than some of the socalled rice Christians.  My dad falls into that category a bit.  He seldom gave himself credit for the good things that he did, but he would punish himself severely for the bad things or errors that he made.  He was rather too harsh on himself at times, and as a consequence, that carried over to other people as well.

He is gone. He is finally relieved of the suffering that he has endured over the past years.  I am hoping that he has caught up with his closest friends and relatives.  He had many friends through his business and his work.  His men would visit with him at our home in Michigan when he was supervisor at the Buckeye Pipeline Co. in Flint,Mi.  I am wondering how I can get word to any of them.  It is in my brother's hands but I doubt that he knew any of them as he was far away in Jackson and did not really know much about them.  I am sure that Taylor is alive and well yet, having been a much younger man...but then my dad lived so long that perhaps Taylor has passed away too. I do not know..

At any rate, in his last years, he had the comfort of the people in the assisted living home. It is much harder when retired and living in a new city to become acquainted and to make friends. But he had made so many while walking in the ranch at the home here in Scottsdale that I will have to let them know now.  His friend Debra who had taken care of him for most of his years in Cortez told me that he had liked to walk so much that finally when he was unable to walk, he just gave it up.  I am sure that that is probably true but he was also very tired when we had talked the last time.  He had told me then that he felt only so-so which for him was an admission of ill health.  I pray that now he has rest and peace.  It is finally over.  This long ordeal.